Science & engineering doctoral candidates, recent PhDs, postdocs, & junior faculty who are U.S. Citizens or legal permanent residents (and a very limited number of Foreign Nationals from non-designated counties) are eligible.
Offered by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, PSSS is a career development experience with a workload of a rigorous 3-hour graduate-level course. Learn the development of a hypothesis-driven planetary science robotic mission in a concurrent engineering environment while getting an in-depth, first-hand look at mission design, life cycle, costs, schedule & the trade-offs inherent in each.
Spend 10-11 weeks in preparatory webinars acting as a science mission team.
Then your final culminating week is mentored by JPL’s Advance Project Design Team to refine your mission concept design & present it to a mock expert review board.
The culminating week is typically at JPL, however in 2021 it is likely to be virtual due to Covid-19 pandemic conditions.
Planetary Science Summer School 2021 – Session 1
Preparatory Sessions: May 24 – August 6
Culminating Week at JPL: August 2-6
Planetary Science Summer School 2021 – Session 2
Preparatory Sessions: May 24 – August 20
Culminating Week at JPL: August 16-20
2021 Application Deadline: Thursday, April 1, 2021